


when it gets bad

by DJBunn3



Series: Unknown [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Baking, Divorce, Dysfunctional Family, Established Keith/Lance (Voltron), Hunk & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Hunk (Voltron) Has Two Moms, M/M, Sleepovers, Truth or Dare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-02-16
Packaged: 2019-03-19 14:26:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13706322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DJBunn3/pseuds/DJBunn3
Summary: “He doesn’t like to talk about it too much,” Lance explains, squeezing Keith’s hand as they wait at a crosswalk. “He thinks he’s burdening us with his problems or something.”They’re headed to Lance’s house after an emergency snack run for the sleepover. Keith’s hand is in his, and their other hands are filled with shopping bags full of chips and junk food.“Hunk doesn’t seem like the secretive type,” Keith says, frowning. Lance nods in agreement.“He’s terrible at keeping secrets. But it’s not really asecretsecret since he doesn’t try to hide it or anything. He just doesn’t bring it up much.”“Have they ever like, hit him?” Keith asks.“Definitely not,” Lance says, frowning at the thought. “They love him a lot, and they’d never do anything to hurt him physically. Sometimes it feels like he’s the only reason they’re still together.”“That’s… kind of sad,” Keith says, squeezing Lance’s hand. “Isn’t there anything we can do for him?”“I don’t think there is,” Lance says. “The best thing we can do for him is to be there when he needs us."---set one month after unknown.





	when it gets bad

Hunk’s parents aren’t the steadiest of couples.

They’ve been fighting on and off for years now, ever since Hunk was eight years old. They’ve never really been subtle about it, either, which just makes Lance mad. Hunk hadn’t deserved it back then, and he doesn’t deserve it now.

Some children who grow up in unhealthy homes act out, or start to bully others, or even kill themselves. Lance has always been told these things, which is why it was so surprising the first time he heard Hunk’s parents argue.

_ “Does this happen a lot?” he asks, ear pressed to Hunk’s bedroom door, listening to Hunk’s moms fight. Hunk seems far less interested in the yelling downstairs, sitting a fair distance away from the door with a book in his hands. _

_ “Sometimes,” he admits. “I guess they disagree a lot. But they still love me, and they still love each other, and that’s good enough.” _

Hunk is kind and sweet and funny, and he has been from the very beginning. He’s the last person Lance would have expected to have grown up in the middle of a never-ending scream-fest. Pidge and Keith had seemed surprised, too, when they first found out. (Pidge at a sleepover, Keith from putting the pieces together.) Even Acxa had seemed surprised, Keith tells him, when she’d heard why they were hanging out today.

“He doesn’t like to talk about it too much,” Lance explains, squeezing Keith’s hand as they wait at a crosswalk. “He thinks he’s burdening us with his problems or something.”

They’re headed to Lance’s house after an emergency snack run--because  _ someone _ has a bad habit of staying up late studying and eating all the food in the house, Lance had explained with a not-so-subtle glare towards Pilar’s empty bedroom. Keith’s hand is in his, and their other hands are filled with shopping bags full of chips and junk food.

“Hunk doesn’t seem like the secretive type,” Keith says, frowning. Lance nods in agreement.

“He’s terrible at keeping secrets. But it’s not really a  _ secret _ secret since he doesn’t try to hide it or anything. He just doesn’t bring it up much.”

“Have they ever like, hit him?” Keith asks.

“Definitely not,” Lance says, frowning at the thought. “They love him a lot, and they’d never do anything to hurt him physically. Sometimes it feels like he’s the only reason they’re still together.”

“That’s… kind of sad,” Keith says, squeezing Lance’s hand. “Isn’t there anything we can do for him?”

“I don’t think there is,” Lance says. “The best thing we can do for him is to be there when he needs us. He really appreciates you coming, by the way.”

“Yeah, of course,” Keith replies as they turn onto Lance’s driveway. Lucas and Luis are laying behind the car as usual, tools and loose party scattered around them haphazardly. They barely acknowledge Lance as he walks by, but Lucas looks up for long enough to wave at Keith.

“Hunk and Pidge should be over in like fifteen minutes,” Lance says, opening the door. Almost immediately, Lucy jumps out at him and knocks him straight into Keith. The two of them stumble back a few steps and almost fall down the porch stairs before Keith catches onto the railing and steadies them both. Lucy jumps up and down, waving her tail madly with excitement.

“Your dog’s trying to kill us,” Keith jokes as Lance leads him inside.

“She does that,” Lance agrees, reaching for the bags in Keith’s hand. “Here, let me put those away. I can give you a kitchen tour while we’re here.”

“I’ve been in your kitchen before, Lance,” Keith says, moving out of reach and heading for the kitchen. Lucy follows him inside, completely disregarding Lance as she goes. It seems that his entire family has fallen in love with Keith since they first met him.

“Yeah,” Lance says, heading after them, “but have you ever had a deluxe tour of it? There’s a lot more than meets the eye.”

“I’m sure there is, but I’m alright without one.”

Lance sighs playfully. “Your loss.”

“So Matt isn’t coming today?” Keith asks, already setting a tub of ice cream in the freezer.

“I think he’s stopping by to drop Pidge off,” Lance says, setting bags of chips out on the counter. “He doesn’t normally sleep over. He’s got stuff to do, you know?”

“Not really.” Keith closes the freezer and reaches for the other bag, which is filled with strawberries and bottles of whipped cream. “I don’t really talk to Matt that much.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Lance says, crumpling up the grocery bag. “So, my mom’s gonna be home a little bit after the others get here, and Pilar might be staying at a friend’s house tonight.”

“Okay.” Keith looks around the kitchen hesitantly. “Where’s your younger sister?”

“She’s out with my dad and Allie,” Lance explains. “They wanted us to have the house to ourselves for a while.”

Keith raises an eyebrow at him, but says nothing. Lance turns back to the remaining bags, pretending that didn’t sound as creepy as it did. He really needs to think about these things before they come tumbling out of his mouth and cause these awkward situations.

Luckily, getting rid of his Unknown persona has made Keith a lot more open and less affected by awkwardness. He keeps setting things in the fridge, then sets the empty bag on the counter. “I sure hope you’re right about Pidge and strawberries,” he says, eyeing the huge cartons of berries before closing the fridge.

“She goes through them like a lawnmower, dude,” Lance says. “It’s impressive. And scary.”

“I believe both of those things.”

Lance shoves the discarded bags inside a bigger bag in the cupboard (because his dad insists that throwing them away is a waste) and then he and Keith head back to the living room. They talk about school, the upcoming production of Twelfth Night, the hot new Garrison meme (a student starting a huge campaign for left-handed pencils and gaining over two hundred signatures on their petition. Both Lance and Keith signed without further questions.) They’ve only been back a few minutes when someone knocks on the door.

Lance jumps up, heading to the entranceway and opening the door to invite the others inside. It’s pleasantly warm out, and there’s a nice wind as well.

Pidge is waving at her brother as he drives away when Lance sees her. She’s got a backpack slung over one shoulder and a paper bag in the other hand, and her messy brown hair is crammed under a new NASA baseball cap.

“Hey,” she says, stepping inside. “I brought snacks.”

“God, not more strawberries,” Lance jokes, glancing out into the street before closing the door.

“Nah. Just some marshmallows and stuff.” Pidge hauls her bags into the kitchen, dropping the food on the counter uninvited. “Where’s Keith?”

“Right here,” Keith says, emerging from the living room. “You didn’t bring Hunk with you?”

“We’re not joined at the hip like you two,” Pidge says, rolling her eyes. “I don’t know where he is. Maybe his bus got delayed or something.”

“I thought he was getting a ride,” Lance says, frowning and reaching for his phone. Hunk had said his mom was driving him, hadn’t he? He opens the messenger and scrolls through to double check.

“Maybe they’re just running a little late,” Keith says doubtfully. It’s a Sunday; there’s hardly any traffic, and Hunk only lives a few minutes’ drive away from Lance’s house, so it’s unlikely that he’s just running late. Still, Lance does his best not to jump to any conclusions.

“Help me put this stuff away,” he says, reaching for Pidge’s bag of food. There’s marshmallows, pretzels, microwave popcorn (which Lance insists is totally useless because “We have a popcorn machine, Pidge.”) All in all, they seem to be pretty set in terms of food.

Ten minutes after Pidge arrives, there’s another knock on the door. Lance restrains himself from bolting for it to make sure his best friend’s okay, but only barely.

Hunk is standing on the porch with a duffel bag in his hands, looking guilty. His family’s car is nowhere in sight. “Hey,” he says awkwardly, letting go of the bag to wave.

“Hunk,  _ acere _ , we thought you weren’t going to show up!” Lance exclaims, pulling him inside. “What happened? Are you okay?”

“I’m only like, eight minutes late, Lance,” Hunk says, avoiding the question. “Don’t worry about it, okay?”

“I’m always worried about it,” Lance replies, trying to make it sound like a joke. Hunk snorts, stepping further inside and waving at Keith and Pidge.

“It’s about time,” Pidge says playfully. “Lance, where should we put our stuff?”

“In my bedroom is fine,” Lance says, gesturing to the hall. Keith had been in his bedroom for the first time before they went to the store to put his own stuff away, and he’d seemed pretty impressed with the old movie posters and swim team awards Lance may or may not have casually put out for that exact reason. His bag is already leaning against the wall when they arrive. Hunk and Pidge set theirs down next to Keith’s, then seat themselves around Lance’s room. Hunk sits on Lance’s bed while Keith leans against the bed frame below, Pidge pulls up Lance’s desk chair, and Lance sits between her and Keith.

“So what’s the deal with you being late?” Pidge prods as soon as they’re all settled. “You hate being late.”

“I know, I know.” Hunk looks down guiltily for a second. “I just decided to take the bus instead. It’s kinda comforting, you know?”

“Not really,” Keith says, wrinkling his nose. Lance smiles fondly--his boyfriend is adorable--before turning back to Hunk.

“Is everything okay? You don’t normally like taking the bus alone.”

“It’s fine,” Hunk says, waving him off again. “I’d rather focus on the sleepover, anyway. What have we got planned?”

“The usual, I assume,” Pidge replies. Keith looks between the three of them, confused.

“What’s the usual?” he asks tentatively. Lance grins.

“Movies, baking, gossip, junk food, confessions… You name it, we’ve done it before,” he says. “Except for like, extreme sports. And motorcycle rides. And breaking the law.”

“We’ve jaywalked before,” Pidge adds helpfully. “That’s breaking the law.”

“True,” Lance says. “I amend my statement. We’ve broken the law before.”

“You guys are wild,” Keith says, smiling playfully.

“We can’t all be mysterious daredevils like you,” Pidge protests, crossing her arms.

“Oh, come on. Keith’s not  _ mysterious _ , he’s just grumpy and antisocial,” Lance argues. “Hunk agrees with me. Right, Hunk?”

“Yeah,” Hunk says, sounding like he hadn’t been listening. “Keith, you’re cool.”

Lance, Keith, and Pidge turn to stare at him simultaneously. Hunk squirms uncomfortably under their gaze. “I mean, you  _ are _ pretty mysterious, though.”

Keith scoffs, rolling his eyes. Lance plays along, ignoring the urge to push Hunk further about his spacey-ness. He knows Hunk doesn’t like to burden others with talking about his home life, but sometimes it feels like Hunk holds back a little too much.

“So, what’s first on the agenda?” Pidge asks, switching the subject. “Is anyone hungry?”

“I could eat,” Keith says, stretching. Hunk nods in agreement. Lance jumps to his feet, reaching for the door handle.

“Good thing we have a lot of options,” he says.

* * *

They end up baking, since everyone agrees it’s too early for dinner. Hunk attempts to teach them, but he ends up doing most of the work anyway. They make masi samoa and double chocolate chip cookies, messing up the kitchen more and more as they continue.

“It’s best to clean as you go,” Hunk says, dropping dirty bowls into the sink. “But when we’ve got ten batches of cookies it gets kind of hard.”

“We didn’t need to make this many,” Lance says, looking over the trays and trays of unbaked cookie dough sitting patiently on every surface.

“Yeah, but this way everybody can take some home.”

“Still,” Pidge says. “Hey, why can’t you frost a chocolate chip cookie?”

“Are there rules against it?” Keith asks, frowning. “I’ve totally done that before.”

“ _ You’ve _ baked before?” Hunk counters incredulously. Out of the three of them excluding Hunk, Keith was without a doubt the least helpful one. At least Lance and Pidge have had plenty of practice with Hunk’s cooking.

“Well, my mom did,” Keith says. “She made chocolate chip cookies all the time.”

Lance pauses for a second, waiting to see what will happen next. Keith doesn’t talk about his mom  _ ever _ , and from what he can tell, it’s not just a coincidence.

“And she frosted them?” Hunk asks,casually  stooping down to slide another tray of cookies into the oven. Lance and Pidge exchange nervous glances, but Keith doesn’t seem to mind the prodding for once.

“Yeah. Nothing fancy, though.” Keith looks around expectantly, and Lance turns back to his tray. If Keith feels like opening up for once, he’s not gonna make a big deal about it and scare him back into bottling everything up.

“Well, there aren’t really any rules against it,” Hunk says, shifting the subject back to baking. (Or maybe it never strayed. Lance was more focused on Keith’s weird mom fact.) “It’s just that those cookies don’t shape well the same way sugar cookies do, and they normally turn out kind of lumpy on top, so the icing won’t be as pretty or nice.”

“Plus they already taste good without icing,” Pidge says. Pidge is an avid believer that icing is only good for looking pretty and masking the taste of boring baked goods.

“Icing is the best,” Keith argues. Keith is an avid believer that sweet things are the best things in life, and the sweeter, the better. Not that he’d ever admit that out loud, but Lance knows about his secret sweet tooth and uses it to his advantage almost daily.

“We can ice some of these if you want, Keith,” Hunk offers, but Keith just shakes his head.

“With all the junk food we have for later, I think regular cookies will suffice,” he says.

Once the cookie sheets are filled with chocolate chip balls and squares of shortbread dough and one’s already stuck in the oven to bake, the four of them sit around the kitchen table. The conversation drifts back to the school play, and soon the air starts to smell like sugar and butter and freshly baked goodness. Hunk gets up to switch the pans out of the oven, transferring the baked cookies onto cooling racks before he sits back down.

“So, Keith, what’s the gossip with the Princes?” he asks, leaning forward expectantly. “Anything interesting happening with them?”

“Is there ever?”

Pidge rolls her eyes. “They didn’t get the reputation they have today from being the most boring people on the planet, Keith.”

“Yeah, they got it from Rolo’s shitty blog and some dick named- what was it, Michael?” Keith frowns, scratching his head. “I don’t remember. Anyway, nothing’s going on with them. They’re all doing great in school and Ezor’s cheerleading squad just got into a sectionals competition.”

“And they’re all still single?” Hunk asks, raising an eyebrow.

“I mean, I guess so,” Keith says with a shrug. “I don’t really want to know.”

“You’re the worst at gossip,” Lance teases, elbowing Keith gently. “Pidge, your turn. How are things going with Alana?”

“Don’t get me started,” Pidge groans, sinking lower in her chair. “She’s so  _ perfect _ and  _ smart _ and  _ funny _ . I always get all weird and sweaty when I’m around her. I don’t understand how people function like this.”

“Are you gonna ask her out?” Hunk prompts, leaning towards Pidge this time. “Can I help?”

“I’m not gonna ask her out!” Pidge exclaims. “How would I even do that?”

“Stalk her,” Keith says with such a straight face that everyone stops to stare at him. He cracks a nervous smile.

Pidge snorts, breaking their silence. “Yeah, that may have worked for you, but I don’t think Alana’s ego is big enough to get tricked by that.”

“Hey!” Lance protests, crossing his arms and pouting.

“What? At least you got a boyfriend out of it,” Pidge points out. “Besides, I actually use my messenger account.”

“And we really  _ don’t _ need any more Unknown drama,” Hunk adds with a smile. “But if you really like her, I  _ could _ help you plan an elaborate confession proposal.”

“ _ God _ no,” Pidge says, shaking her head violently. “Hunk, I love you like a brother, but if you ever try to set something up between me and Alana, I’ll disown you.”

“Aw, come on!” Hunk whines. Pidge glares at him and he relents, putting his hands up in surrender.

“If you want to ask Alana out, just go for it,” Lance says, attempting to be genuine for once. “I can tell she likes you a lot. She’d totally say yes if you asked her.”

“I don’t know,” Pidge says, rubbing her nose nervously. “Maybe in the future. If she comes to the school play and I work up the nerve by then…”

“You two could watch it together,” Hunk suggests, still not over his romantic matchmaking scheme. “I bet she’d love to come if you asked her.”

“Maybe,” Pidge says again, shaking her head. “I really don’t know. I’ll think about it.”

“Fair enough,” Lance says, then turns his attention to Hunk. “What about you? Anyone special on your mind lately?”

“That would still be a no,” Hunk says, rolling his eyes. “You know I’d tell you if there were. I’ve got too much on my plate to deal with being in a relationship, anyway.”

Lance nods understandingly. Hunk’s always had kind of bad anxiety, and his relationship with Shay hadn’t exactly helped him calm down as much as Lance had hoped. As far as anyone knows, he hasn’t had any serious crushes since they broke up.

“I guess that’s fair,” Pidge says. “Besides, you’re lucky you don’t have to worry about liking someone. Like I said, it  _ sucks _ .”

“It’s not so bad,” Lance argues, glancing over at Keith. Keith smiles at him gently, then turns back to Hunk.

“No, it’s pretty bad,” he says with a grin. Lance feigns offence, but he can’t keep a straight face. Of course Keith would say something so cynical.

The timer on the oven goes off, and Hunk jumps up to switch the batches again. Lance is hit with the smell of melted chocolate and sugary goodness, and he breathes it in appreciatively. Hunk’s double chocolate chip cookies are the best, even though he just follows an old Betty Crocker recipe from a book he found in a garage sale. No one’s ever managed to recreate them--not even Violeta.

“They came out perfect!” Hunk announces, and everyone cheers. The kitchen is filled with excited chatter and the sound of a spatula against Violeta’s old metal cookie sheets, and it’s almost enough to make Lance forget about his friend’s weird behavior earlier in the day.

* * *

After the last batch of cookies is set on the rack to cool and the rest are divided into huge containers for everyone to take home, they settle in the living room in front of the TV. Lance’s family has a lot of couches and chairs, but for some reason everyone seems intent on cramming onto the big purple sofa in the middle of the room. Lance is squished between Keith and Pidge, Hunk on Pidge’s other side. It’s a close fit, but not entirely comfortable.

They argue for a while about which movie to watch. Hunk wants to marathon all the High School Musicals, to which Pidge is greatly opposed. Lance is neutral; it’s his house, so he’s already seen all the movies they have. To everyone’s surprise, Keith sides with Hunk about High School Musical and refuses to say anything further on the subject until Pidge threatens to change all his ringtones to  _ We’re All In This Together _ .

“I don’t even use ringtones!” Keith exclaims. “My phone’s always on silent.”

“Wonder why,” Lance says conspiratorially. “What  _ is _ your current ringtone, Keith?”

This leads to a long argument and a brief arm wrestling match (winner gets to choose Keith’s new ringtone) which Hunk easily bests everyone at. By the time they’ve all settled down enough to actually agree on a movie, Allie and Violeta are home along with Lance’s dad, which rules out two of the more violent movies that had been in the running. Hunk and Keith make one more proposal for High School Musical, but in the end they decide to go with  _ The Amazing Spider-Man _ .

“He doesn’t  _ look _ like Spider-Man,” Lance says, frowning at the screen. “He looks like Steve from  _ Stranger Things _ .”

“He looks like The Flash,” Keith adds.

“I dunno, he could pass as a Peter Parker,” Hunk argues, tilting his head to the side and squinting. “He’s no Tom Holland, but he’s not  _ that _ bad.”

“I don’t like this Gwen,” Pidge says. “I miss Zendaya.”

“We can watch Homecoming next time,” Lance offers, glancing away from the screen.

“Sounds good,” Hunk says, and Pidge nods in agreement. Keith reaches for Lance’s hand, squeezing it gently and saying nothing.

They’re an hour into the movie when Lance notices Hunk isn’t reacting to it anymore. He’s sitting there quietly with a blank expression, staring ahead at the TV like it’s not even on. Pidge and Keith are both too absorbed in the movie to pay attention to anyone else anymore, but Lance is concerned. Hunk’s been acting kind of weird all night, and even though he’d snapped out of it for a bit earlier, now he’s back to being spacey and strange.

“You okay?” he whispers, reaching over Pidge to set a hand on Hunk’s shoulder. Hunk blinks, glancing down at his shoulder, then up at Lance.

“Yeah,” he says, attempting a smile. “I was just thinking about dinner.”

He’s lying, Lance knows, but he doesn’t push any further. Hunk has enough pressure on him without Lance demanding to know everything going on in his head. He tries to look reassured, turning back to watch the movie, but he can’t focus. If something really bad was going on, Hunk would tell him, right? They never keep things from each other, especially if those things are important.

Then again, he  _ had _ kept some stuff from Hunk just a few weeks ago. And Hunk had kept things from him as well, even though it was for Keith’s sake. Maybe Hunk thinks he’s bothering Lance by bringing up issues from his life, or maybe he just doesn’t know how to go about it. Either way, Lance is positive that there’s something going on with his friend.

The movie ends, and Pidge and Keith are immediately lost in conversation about Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker and radioactive spiders and who knows what else. Lance still isn’t paying attention. Hunk glances at him nervously, squirming under Lance’s scrutinizing gaze.

“You’re really sure there’s nothing you want to talk about?” Lance asks quietly, choosing his words like one might choose eggs at the farmer’s market. Hunk shrugs sheepishly.

“Yeah,” he says, somehow managing to sound even less convincing than he had earlier. “I mean, maybe later. I’m alright for now, I promise.”

“Huh?” Pidge turns towards them, distracted from her conversation with Keith. “Is something going on?”

“No,” Hunk says unsurely, shaking his head. “We’re good. Anyone want dinner?”

“If anyone else does,” Keith says, looking between the three of them.

“Yeah, sure,” Lance agrees, standing. “We’ve got a frozen cheese pizza, or I can have my dad make us something. There’s also some leftovers in the fridge.”

“Pizza sounds good,” Pidge says, pushing herself to her feet. “Do you have olives?”

This sparks another argument between the four of them, although it’s really more Lance against Hunk, Pidge, and Keith, who all believe that olives are the superior pizza topping.

“I mean, they’re fine if they’re mixed in with a bunch of other stuff, but just olive and cheese? That’s kinda gross,” Lance says, frowning judgmentally as Pidge drains a can of sliced olives into the sink.

“Have you ever  _ had _ plain olive pizza?” Pidge argues, grabbing a spoon from the dish rack and scooping out a bunch of olives.

“I mean, I like a fancy pizza as much as the next guy, but olives on pizza really isn’t that bad of a thing,” Hunk adds. Lance rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t protest further as Pidge dumps olives onto the frozen mass of cheese and tomato sauce.

Lance sticks it into the oven, and once again they gather around the kitchen table to wait. Hunk seems to have gotten distracted in the kitchen again, which is good. He’s much more focused and present than he was before, so much so that Lance almost wonders if he’d overexaggerated it in his head earlier.

“Pizza is a good sleepover food,” Pidge declares confidently. “I mean, you can put whatever you want on it and it’s really easy to order or heat up. I rest my case.”

“Mini pizzas are good if your friends are a bunch of heathens,” Lance agrees, pretending to shudder.

“Like you would have let us put olives on if you didn’t secretly like them,” Hunk says. Keith snorts.

“Disgusting,” Lance replies scornfully. “I would never.”

“Oh, just accept it,” Pidge says with a sigh, rolling her eyes dramatically. “You’re one of us.”

“At least we don’t like sardines or something,” Hunk adds. “Sardines are for people who have no taste.”

“I bet Rolo eats sardines on his pizza,” Keith says. “He probably swallows them whole, too.”

“I hope he chokes on them and dies,” Pidge says, only half joking. “Hey, can you imagine having a sleepover with Rolo?”

“Jesus.” Lance shudders at the thought.

“What would be worse? A sleepover with Quentin or a sleepover with Rolo?” Keith asks, looking between his friends.

“Quentin,” Pidge says.

“Rolo,” Lance replies at the same time.

“I can’t choose,” Hunk says, shaking his head and shuddering. Lance chuckles.

“Can you imagine what it would be like to have a sleepover with the Princes?” he suggests, grinning.

“I bet they’d just sit around doing homework,” Pidge says.

“I bet they’d go burn a bunch of abandoned buildings down,” Hunk says.

“Pidge is right,” Keith says. “Homework, dinner, like an hour of  _ Animal Planet _ , and then they hide out in Acxa’s room for a while.”

“ _ Animal Planet _ ? Really?” Hunk looks incredulous.

“They’re all furries!” Pidge exclaims, slamming her hand down on the table. “Keith, they’re furries, right?”

“Why would I know?”

“Because you live with one?”

“So? I don’t go rummaging around in her room or crashing her sleepovers. I don’t know what kind of stuff she’s into.”

“The pizza’s done!” Hunk exclaims, jumping up from his chair. “Lance, give me a hand, would you?”

* * *

The pizza turns out great. It’s baked well, the cheese is melty and warm, the crust is golden brown, and the olives are- well, they're fine. Between the four of them, they finish the entire thing and debate making a second before everyone remembers all the other snacks they bought earlier. So they take bags of chips and candy and homemade popcorn and cookies and two cartons of fresh strawberries and carry it all back to Lance’s room. (Violeta and the twins had commandeered the living room the second Lance and his friends had left it.)

They throw the bags and backpacks and sleeping bags in a corner and re-settle themselves around the room. At some point Lance’s dad had dragged in his old bean bags from the garage, so he and Pidge sit on those while Hunk and Keith lean against the bed.

They spend about half an hour taking stupid pictures of one another and showing each other memes and not really doing anything at all aside from hanging out together. It’s nice. Lance likes to have activities planned ahead of time, especially when they introduce someone new into the group, but somehow there’s always some time in between for them to just chill and relax. At some point Keith migrates across the room, crawling over to Lance to show him pictures of a motorbike and never going back to the bed. He leans against Lance’s bean bag without another word, and Lance certainly doesn’t mind.

When Pidge uncovers a series of YouTube videos about a guy replying to spam email, they switch from Chill Meme Time to YouTube Rabbit Hole Time, which is another unscheduled but not unwelcome activity. Lance plays a homemade highlight reel of the previous year’s school play, Keith plays a two minute video called Slow Loris eating a Rice Ball about four times on repeat before everyone realizes what’s going on, and Hunk plays his favorite Kalen Allen react videos. All in all, it’s a pretty successful rabbit hole.

Lance glances at the time and stares in surprise. It’s later than he thought it was--not late enough to have to go to sleep yet, but still. Allie and Violeta are probably asleep already.

“What now?” he asks, turning back to his friends. Hunk suppresses a yawn, the bags under his eyes more prominent thanks to the light from the computer screen. Pidge is playing with her new hat, absently peeling the brand sticker from the underside of the bill. Keith is watching him fondly, which is almost enough to make him blush.

“What do you normally do?” Keith asks curiously.

“Sometimes we play video games or board games or card games or whatever, or we watch TV, or do homework if we’re really behind.”

“That only happened once, though,” Pidge says. “And we totally aced that assignment, anyway, so it’s not like it was  _ that _ big of a deal.”

“One time we played Cards Against Humanity,” Hunk says, shuddering again. “That was truly a scarring experience.”

“Aw, it wasn’t that bad,” Lance says, knowing fully well that it  _ was _ that bad. None of them will ever be able to look at bendy straws the same again.

“It was fun,” Pidge says. “But I’m not sure I’m in the mood for it tonight.”

“It’s probably for the best,” Lance agrees with a sigh. “We wouldn’t want to scare Keith off on the first sleepover. We’ll wait until the third, at least.”

“What about a getting to know you game?” Hunk suggests, chin propped up on his hand. “Not that we don’t know each other, it’s just that… Well, we kind of  _ don’t _ know each other.”

“That sounds like it would be boring for you guys,” Keith says doubtfully, looking around at the three of them. “Don’t you already know everything about each other?”

“What about Truth or Dare?” Pidge suggests, her eyes lighting up. “We can learn more about each other, and Hunk and Lance won’t have to ask each other questions they already know the answers to. They can just dare each other!”

“Truth or Dare? I don’t know…” Hunk frowns, chewing on his lip nervously. “Isn’t that game kind of cliche?”

“Yeah, but it’s a classic sleepover game!” Lance replies, jumping on board quickly. “I think it’s a great idea. Keith?”

“Uh… Sure?”

Hunk groans, looking defeated. Pidge laughs maniacally. Keith looks slightly concerned.

“How should we play?” Pidge asks. “Go in a circle? Spin the bottle style?”

“Circle is fine,” Lance says, reaching for a bag of chips, then pauses and glances at Keith. “Does everyone know the rules?”

Keith catches him looking and rolls his eyes. “I know what Truth or Dare is, Lance,” he says.

“I’ll go first!” Pidge exclaims, waving her hand excitedly. “Lance, truth or dare?”

“Dare,” Lance says immediately. He’d learned the hard way that it’s better to take dares from Pidge and truths from Hunk, unless he wants to be psychoanalyzed to the last detail. Of course, Hunk normally asks stuff about his previously pathetic love life, but he feels like his friend might go easy on him since Keith is here.

“I dare you to do a shot of vinegar!” Pidge says, grinning wickedly. Hunk makes a gagging noise behind her.

“Ugh, are you serious? You’re evil, Pidge, absolutely evil.” Lance glares at her for a second, but she stares back just as stubbornly until he relents. Keith moves to let him get to the kitchen, and he returns a second later with a bottle of balsamic vinegar and a shot glass.

“Isn’t this kind of unhealthy?” Hunk points out, staring nervously at the bottle. Lance shrugs, pouring himself the tiniest amount possible. It’s better than letting Pidge ask him some weird, probing question that will probably result in his embarrassment. That’s how she’d found out how he and Mae had broken up, after all, and that  _ really _ isn’t a pleasant story.

“Three… Two… One!” Pidge yells, leaning forward to watch. Lance tips his head back and downs the shot, feeling it go straight to his throat and immediately begin to burn. He coughs and sputters, almost dropping the shot glass. Pidge cackles, and Hunk thrusts a glass of water towards him sympathetically.

“Oh my god,” Pidge snorts, rolling backwards onto the floor. “I can’t believe you actually did it!”

“Are you alright?” Keith asks, crawling over to him and taking the glass out of his hand. “That looked painful.”

“I’m fine,” Lance rasps, shaking his head. “Hunk, your turn.”

Hunk looks consideringly at each of his friends, looking two seconds away from stroking his chin like a movie villain. “Keith,” he says finally. “Truth or dare?”

Keith sighs longsufferingly. “Dare,” he says, looking pained.

“I dare you to let me look through your camera roll,” Hunk says with a triumphant grin. Keith sighs again, reluctantly handing over his phone.

Hunk immediately starts scrolling through Keith’s album, snorting every now and again. Lance cranes his neck to see, but Hunk moves to hide the screen quickly.

“Wow, Keith, what are you doing with all these pictures of hot guys?” he teases mischievously. Keith frowns in confusion.

“What? I don’t have any-”

“Geez, you’re  _ really _ obsessed with Troye Sivan,” Hunk continues. Pidge rolls her eyes, and Lance honestly can’t tell if he’s joking or not.

“Hunk!” Keith protests. “Stop messing around!”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding.” Hunk holds the phone screen towards Lance and Pidge, scrolling up some more. “It’s mostly Lance’s selfies.”

“Aww, you saved my selfies?” Lance says with a grin.

“No,  _ you _ saved your selfies  _ to my phone _ ,” Keith reminds him, unamused. “And then you took more.”

“Oh, that’s right.”

“Ugh,” Pidge groans. “Keith, you’re next.”

Keith immediately turns to Lance. “Truth or dare?” he demands, leaning forward and bracing his weight on his hands.

“Uh… Truth?”

“Shit,” Keith groans. “I was gonna dare you to go a week without taking selfies.”

“Dodged a bullet, then,” Lance replies, smirking.

“Fine. Tell us about your guilty pleasure,” Keith says, tilting his chin forward defiantly. Hunk snorts.

“My guilty pleasure? That’s easy,” Lance says. “It’s salsa dancing.”

“Liar,” Hunk says.

“Shitty fanfiction.”

“Nope,” Pidge says, shaking her head. “I’ve seen your internet history, and there’s no fanfiction.”

“Homestuck?”

“You never even finished Homestuck!”

“It’s  _ Glee _ ,” Hunk blurts out. There’s a moment of silence before Pidge and Keith burst out laughing.

“ _ Glee _ ?” Pidge chokes out, almost falling off her bean bag. “For real?”

“It’s an addictive show!” Lance exclaims, glaring at Hunk. “He watched it with me!”

“Yeah, but I didn’t memorize the choreography to  _ Don’t Stop Believing _ ,” Hunk argues. “Unlike  _ some _ people.”

“That show is ridiculous,” Keith laughs, shaking his head. “Although, to be fair, I  _ did _ watch the first season on Netflix.”

“Ha! See? I’m not the only one!”

“You watched all six seasons twice,” Hunk says.

“Ugh. Moving on.” Lance turns to Pidge, intent on getting revenge for the vinegar. “Truth or dare, Pidgeon?”

They play for a while, until the dares become less and less frequent and the truths turn from silly to serious. Keith doesn’t talk about his mom when Pidge asks about the move, but he  _ does _ talk about adjusting to living with Acxa and Sarah. Lance opens up a little more about Florona, although it’s not much more than acknowledging that it was hard for him to talk about before. It’s still hard, even though they’re getting along better and better the more they hang out. Pidge talks about her anxiety and her crazy Latin teacher, who loved the paper she turned in for the biology project. The night seems to be winding down, and Lance is starting to think about getting into bed when Keith nudges him gently.

“It’s your turn,” he says. Lance blinks in surprise. He must have zoned out for a minute, because the last thing he remembers is Pidge asking Keith about the Princes again.

He looks over at his friends. Pidge is half paying attention, half looking at something on her phone, Keith is waiting patiently for him to ask something, and Hunk is staring off into space again with that same strange, lost expression. Lance frowns, concerned. He’d been meaning to let Hunk come to them unprompted when he was ready to talk, but that could take weeks. If Hunk isn’t doing well because of his parents, Lance wants to know about it.

With that in mind, he makes a decision.

“Hunk, truth or dare?” he asks, crossing his fingers behind his back. Hunk looks up, snapped out of his thoughts.

“Uh, truth,” he says, shaking himself.

“Okay,” Lance says, then pauses. He doesn’t know how to phrase his question without sounding intrusive, but he knows that it’s too important to not ask. “Why are you acting so weird?”

Hunk stiffens, his eyes going wide. Pidge drops her phone and sits up, paying full attention, and Keith looks over at Hunk as well. Lance watches Hunk open his mouth, then close it again, like he’s struggling to come up with an answer that won’t reveal the truth.

“Lance…” he says finally, nervous. “It’s fine, okay? Everything’s fine.”

“Everything’s not fine,” Lance argues, frowning. “You’ve been super distant all day. It’s not like you, dude.”

“I’m just a little tired,” Hunk lies.

“Bullshit. I know what you’re like when you’re tired, and this isn’t it.” Lance sighs, shaking his head. “You don’t have to answer. You know that. But we’re worried, okay?”

“I don’t… I mean-” Hunk says, shaking his head. “You shouldn’t worry about me. I’m okay, okay? Sure, things are a little rough at home right now, but that doesn’t mean…”

“Hunk, please. Talk to us. We want to help you.”

Hunk is quiet for a minute. “What if you can’t help me?” he asks, looking up at Lance. “Why should I make you guys worry if there’s nothing any of us can do?”

“Because it feels better to talk about it than to keep it to yourself,” Pidge says imploringly.

“Because secrets have never done us any good before,” Keith adds.

“Because we care about you,” Lance finishes for them, refusing to break eye contact. “And that means we’ll do whatever we can to help you, even if it’s just like, being there to talk to or something.”

The room is quiet again. Hunk stares down at his hands, lying palms-up on his lap. Subconsciously, Lance reaches for Keith’s hand and squeezes it. Keith squeezes back and rubs his thumb over Lance’s knuckles comfortingly.

“They were fighting when I left,” Hunk admits after a minute. “They weren’t yelling or screaming or anything, but they were arguing. And… I heard Mama talk about a divorce.”

Lance sucks in a breath, surprised. Sure, Hunk’s parents have never been the steadiest of couples, but he’d figured that they’d hold it together long enough to get Hunk into college, at least. For his sake. After all, why would they wait this long when they’ve been fighting since Lance and Hunk met, and probably before? Why get divorced  _ now _ ?

“You think she meant it?” Pidge asks. “Do you think they’ll actually-”

“I don’t know,” Hunk says. “It’s the first I’ve heard of it, but… I feel like they’ve been arguing more and more lately. I just don’t know.”

“Is that why you were late today?” Keith asks. “Is that why you took the bus?”

“Yeah,” Hunk replies, sighing. “Mama offered to drive me, but I didn’t want to be around them. Not after that.”

“Hunk, I’m so sorry,” Lance says, letting go of Keith’s hand and crawling over to wrap his friend in a hug. “That’s awful.”

“Yeah, seriously,” Pidge agrees.

“It’s alright,” Hunk says, even though they all know it’s not. “I mean, I guess I kind of saw it coming. This isn’t really new territory to me, after all.”

“Still,” Keith says, moving closer to them. “If there’s anything we can do to help you…”

“I really don’t think there is,” Hunk says, pulling away from Lance and wiping at his eyes. He looks close to crying. “You’ve already helped me a lot, you know? Having these sleepovers, listening to me when I need it, stuff like that. But you can’t make my parents love each other again.”

He says it casually, but there’s a tremor in his voice that breaks Lance’s heart. “Hunk…” he whispers. “It’s okay. It’s all gonna work out in the end. You know that, don’t you?”

But he doesn’t know. None of them do.

* * *

“Thanks for having us over,” Hunk says the following morning, standing on Lance’s doorstep with Keith by his side. The two of them are taking the bus together, since Hunk had asked his moms not to pick him up.

“No problem,” Lance says, smiling. “I had fun.”

And it’s true. The sleepover  _ was _ fun--they always are, but having Keith there with them made it even more so. They’d had a nice breakfast together without any of the sad, tearful atmosphere of the night before lingering to haunt them. Hunk had seemed a lot better after talking about his parents, even though he’s still a little distant. And Lance feels better knowing that Hunk’s doing better.

“I hope everything’s okay,” Lance says, patting Hunk on the shoulder. “Just tell me if you need to come over again, okay?”

“I will,” Hunk promises. “Don’t worry about me, Lance.”

“If you say so.” Lance leans over to kiss Keith on the cheek. “Don’t get lost on the way home,” he says.

“Lance, for the last time, I’ve been to your house before,” Keith groans. “I’m not gonna get lost.”

“Right, right. Be careful, though, both of you.”

Hunk and Keith wave as they walk towards the bus stop, and Lance watches them until they’re out of sight. Pidge pokes her head out next to him.

“You think he’s gonna be okay?” she asks worriedly, staring down the street.

“I don’t know, Pidge,” Lance sighs, shaking his head. “But god, I hope so.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to come out in time for Hunk's birthday, but a lot of things came up and I got really busy. Hopefully I'll have the next installment out much sooner!  
> [My Tumblr](https://djbunn3.tumblr.com/)


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